This is a guest post by Moriah Stephens, a high school teacher in a school outside Minneapolis, Minnesota. See Ms. Stephens’ bio below. Edukention thanks Moriah for being our first ever Guest Blogger! [Details in this post have been altered to maintain anonymity and protect the privacy of those mentioned.] — “I have to wear… Read More »Teachers, Are You Experiencing “Vicarious Trauma”?
This is a slideshow I created and delivered for the SUNY Council on Writing in 2018. Please enjoy! Link to Full Slideshow (no sound)
Conferences, especially when we get back to in-person, are exciting spaces. You’ll meet hundreds, even thousands of people who are passionate about the same things you are. When teachers get together at a conference such as the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention, or any number of other teacher conferences, the energy is… Read More »Wanna Present at a Conference? Answer Three Questions in Your Proposal
Since I co-authored a number of articles and chapters in the early 2000s–including the most popular “Why Revitalize Grammar?” (2003, English Journal), “Grammar Rant Analysis” (2006, English Journal), and Grammar Rants (Heinemann, 2011)–I have been exploring the ways in which grammar instruction in the USA is based on bigotry. In the years since, I have… Read More »Teaching Standard English is Racist
Yesterday we witnessed the first violent insurrection against the United States government since the US Civil War. It was led by a cult leader who managed to get himself elected President of the United States, and he activated it when he lost his re-election bid. Yesterday was President Trump’s SECOND attempt at a violent insurrection.… Read More »Is the United States of America Already Over?
In a democracy, the real goal of education is to help students develop themselves into knowledgeable, critically thoughtful, and action-oriented citizens. That means it is our job as teachers to educate our students to live their best futures for themselves and those around them. Good teachers know that we don’t have all the answers to… Read More »Are You Educating Citizens for a Democratic Future, or Preparing Livestock for Slaughter?
Traditional colleges/universities are conservative, even risk-averse institutions desperately preserving their prestige (and market share). The open market of for-profit education is a risk-fueled financial orgy desperately trying to be taken seriously. Both have ethical and organizational problems, which is why neither is succeeding in truly innovating the practices of higher education. What real innovation requires… Read More »Innovating the Traditional College, University Right Now
I love social media. Not all of it. I’ve been off Facebook for just about a year, and I have enjoyed the time away. But I love Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. I like these platforms better because they are more public facing than Facebook, which tends to narrow to people I know personally. I like… Read More »2 Fast, Easy Ways to Keep Social Media from Driving Your Students (and YOU) to Distraction
This week, for our last class session, I asked students in my Teaching of Writing class what questions they have about teaching writing in high school/middle school. I also allowed questions about teaching in general. The students were able to upload questions anonymously using a Google Form I created for them. I’m always interested in… Read More »What Questions Did Pre-Service Teachers of Writing Ask?
I have been using Twitter for over 9 years now (@Klind2013) and while I originally used it similarly to how I used Facebook, I now use it almost entirely to speak with professional colleagues. I still somewhat begrudgingly use FB to communicate with relatives, friends, old schoolmates, and some colleagues, but Twitter has become my… Read More »5 Ways to Use Twitter to Develop a Professional Network
